John W and I took the train to Chirk to meet Clive and Ken at the appointed coffee start of Castle Bistro Tearooms. Already seated and drinking, the Brisk group today outnumbered the mod riders = 3. Weather was going to be heavy rain showers around lunchtime with tropical sunshine for the remainder!!!
We departed at the regular time of 10:30 heading down Chirk Bank then up the grind to Weston Rhyn and taking the Old Chirk Road to cross the A5 and on to Gobowen where we were held up by the crossing gates to allow two trains to pass. Out to Whittington and to Queens Head, we are heading southerly and it’s a good headwind we are riding into. Skirting Oswestry and going through a new housing estate we find ourselves in a cul-de-sac. I blame the Garmin as too slow to catch up but I may have missed our turning. Passing the Queens Head pub, we continue Wykey then head towards Baschurch.
We now have 8 miles of straight roads and lanes to take us into Shrewsbury via Coton Hill. Approx. 20 minutes out, we stop to don our rain jackets and arrive at Wetherspoons Montgomery’s Tower just as the rain starts to get heavy. We had abandoned the planned ride around by the riverside park to dash directly to the pub. Quickly seated and lunch ordered, we enjoy the ambiance of Christmas décor in the establishment warm and cosy whilst it's duly raining hard outside.
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| Raining hard outside: Hydrating inside |
Completing our lunch coincides with the rain stopping, so we again get our gear on and ride out via Shelton along the Holyhead Road. Arriving at Montford Bridge, we encounter the first serious flooded road but we are able to surf our way through. The rainfall whilst we were indoors must have been heavy as there are several more lanes that we had to navigate our way through.
Passing through Ruyton XI Towns we ride through familiar haunts of Knockin and Newbridge. Fortunately, we are riding with lights and at 15:00 the sky is dark from Morda to Oswestry. Here it is dark enough to enjoy the Christmas lights and had we not been riding through the rain and having to continually wipe the drops from our glasses then we might have enjoyed them even more. We continue to Weston Rhyn exiting on to the Ceriog valley road and return into Chirk.
John and I head back to the station with 10 minutes to spare, and Clive and Ken head to the car park to retrieve their cars. We’ve not had a long ride today. The route was 53 miles and just the usual climbs of most rides.
The rain wasn’t too bad as we all have good weatherproof clothing and completed our ride relatively dry and warm. A good day out and excellent lunch with good friends on a club ride.
See route map and/or gpx file download
ID
Photo JW
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